ELR Citation: ELR 20097
No(s). 04-20519 (5th Cir. Jun 8, 2006)

The court vacates and remands a lower court's imposition of joint and several liability against two companies for their share of the cleanup costs at a manufacturing plant, but affirms the court's allocation of liability to a third party for future cleanup costs. Liability in contribution actions brought under §113(f) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act is several only. The lower court, therefore, erred in imposing joint and several liability against the two companies. On remand, it must determine the proper division of liability between them. The court, however, did not err in allocating the majority of future cleanup costs against a third company, as there is a great deal of evidence on the record directly implicating that company for the majority of the contamination.